Why does employee motivation fall and how can it be raised? Read about intrinsic and extrinsic factors, data from Turkey and practical steps for employers.
On a Monday morning as the shift begins, look at a production line or an office floor and you may see two employees on the same pay, bound by the same rules, approaching their work with completely different energy. One notices an error and corrects it unprompted; the other only does what he is told. A significant part of the difference has to do with employee motivation. Motivation is the sum of the internal and external forces that start a person on a task, keep them at it and keep them going when it gets hard. In this article I look at the intrinsic and extrinsic sources of motivation, why it has become so fragile in Turkey today, and what employers, HR managers and line managers can concretely do.
What Is Employee Motivation and Why Does It Matter So Much?
Motivation is often described with words like "willingness" or "enthusiasm," but in the workplace it has far more concrete consequences. A motivated employee gives the work their attention, speaks up when they see a problem, is open to learning something new and does not easily cut their ties with the organisation. An employee whose motivation has fallen usually does not leave at first; they go quiet, and then begin to do only the bare minimum. This picture is exactly the situation discussed in recent years under the name of quiet quitting.
According to Gallup's State of the Global Workplace report published in 2026, only 20% of employees worldwide are truly engaged in their work; in Turkey this figure is 8%, and the proportion who are actively disengaged is 24% (Gallup, 2026; 2025 data). According to the same report, the cost of low engagement to the world economy is about 10 trillion dollars, or 9% of global GDP (Gallup, 2026). Engagement and motivation are not the same concept, but they feed each other: the motivation of a person who finds neither meaning nor support in their work cannot stay afloat for long.
Another striking figure for Turkey is the level of stress. In the same report, 66% of employees in Turkey say they experienced stress for much of the previous day; the global average is 40% (Gallup, 2026). A mind under constant stress focuses not on long-term goals but on getting through the day. This is the ground on which motivation is most fragile.
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation: Two Different Fuels
In psychology, motivation is generally described as having two sources.
Extrinsic motivation is about rewards and sanctions that come from outside the work: pay, bonuses, promotion, benefits, job title, fear of punishment or the manager's approval. These factors matter and should not be underestimated. Especially in periods when the high cost of living is acutely felt, pay that is not enough to live on can overshadow every other effort at motivation. I have discussed this separately in the article on inflation and employee motivation.
Intrinsic motivation comes from the work itself: feeling that what you do has meaning, seeing that you are mastering it, having an area of decision-making and building bonds with the people you work with. According to a framework often used in psychology, people have three basic psychological needs:
- Autonomy: Having some say over how you do your work.
- Competence: Seeing that you are good at your work, that you are developing and that your effort produces results.
- Relatedness: Belonging to the team and feeling valued and cared about.
When these needs are met, people approach their work more willingly. When they are not, even a pay rise may produce only a brief revival and then lose its effect.
Pay brings an employee through the door; but what keeps them in the work is often meaning, development and being seen.
An important warning is needed here: intrinsic motivation is not a substitute for external conditions. Giving the message "love your job, find meaning" without providing fair pay and safe working conditions creates justified anger in employees. The healthy approach is to establish the extrinsic factors as a fair floor and to build intrinsic motivation on top of that floor.
Why Does Employee Motivation Fall?
Loss of motivation is rarely down to a single cause. The risk factors most often encountered in the field can be listed as follows:
Excessive workload and time pressure
In the OSH Pulse 2022 survey of more than 27,000 workers in Europe, 46% of employees reported severe time pressure or work overload (EU-OSHA, 2022). The constant feeling of being unable to keep up turns over time into the thought "nothing I do is enough." This thought is one of the things that consumes motivation fastest.
Poor communication and uncertainty
In the same survey, 26% of employees reported poor communication or a lack of cooperation within the organisation, and 18% a lack of autonomy (EU-OSHA, 2022). Employees who do not know what is being done and why, and who never take part in decisions, feel like mere implementers of the work rather than its owners.
Not being seen, and lack of feedback
When good work goes unnoticed and only mistakes are discussed, motivation is quietly eroded. I describe how appreciation can be turned into a culture in the article on a culture of appreciation.
Manager behaviour
According to Gallup's 2026 report, managers' own engagement has also fallen to 22%, down 9 points since 2022 (Gallup, 2026). It is hard for a manager who is themselves exhausted to give their team energy. Micromanagement, inconsistent rules and decisions perceived as unfair also affect motivation directly.
Uncertainty about development and career
An employee who has been doing the same job for years and sees no path ahead gradually loses the motivation that was high at the start. For young employees in particular, the opportunity to learn and progress can be as decisive as pay.
Psychological load and personal struggles
Problems at home, worries about debt, sleeplessness or a loss that has been experienced can appear at work as low motivation. At this point, a motivation problem can become mixed up with burnout or depressive symptoms. Managers are not expected to make this distinction; but it is important not to resort immediately to the interpretation of "laziness."
Economic uncertainty and anxiety about the future
The high cost of living, rent increases and the fear of losing one's job direct a large part of an employee's mental energy towards making ends meet. In Gallup's data for Turkey, the proportion who say it is "a good time to find a job" is 23% (Gallup, 2026). An employee who sees their options for changing jobs as limited may continue to stay in their job; but that does not mean they are motivated. A job one feels obliged to stay in is a very different experience from a job done willingly, and over time this difference shows up in quality, team relationships and workplace safety.
The Effect of Low Motivation on the Business
Loss of motivation generally shows itself in the organisation through the following indicators:
- Drop in productivity: The work gets done but not carefully; quality errors increase.
- Absenteeism and lateness: Taking leave on small pretexts becomes more frequent.
- Staff turnover: Good employees are the first to leave when they find a better opportunity. In Deloitte's 2022 study in the UK, 28% of employees were found to have left their jobs in the last year or to be planning to leave in the coming year (Deloitte, 2022).
- Occupational safety risks: In environments where attention is scattered and an "it's not my problem" attitude has taken hold, compliance with rules can loosen.
- Loss of suggestions and initiative: Process improvement ideas are among an organisation's most valuable resources; an employee with low motivation does not share them.
Suppose that in a medium-sized factory, an experienced technician in the quality unit sees that an improvement he has been suggesting for months is never put on the agenda. At first he begins to speak less in meetings, then he does only what is asked of him. After a while, when an offer comes from a rival company, he accepts it without much thought. In the records this appears only as "a staff departure"; yet what has been lost is years of accumulated experience, in-house knowledge and the time that will have to be spent training the new person.
For this reason, employee motivation is not just a matter of "goodwill" for HR but a direct indicator of business performance.
What Can Employers and Managers Do to Increase Motivation?
The steps below can be applied in most businesses without needing a large budget.
1. Establish a fair extrinsic floor
A transparent and consistent pay policy, with no unexplained differences between people doing the same job, is the basic condition. If you have bonus schemes, put the criteria in writing so that everyone can understand them. When it remains unclear who the reward is given to and why, a bonus can produce resentment instead of motivation.
2. Make the meaning of the work visible
Employees find their work more meaningful when they know where the part they make, the report they prepare or the service they provide ends up. Sharing a customer's feedback with the team and showing where the finished product is used are small but effective steps.
3. Give room for decision-making
In an arrangement where the manager decides everything, employees cannot be expected to take responsibility. Give the team a say in work methods, task allocation within a shift or small improvements. Autonomy does not mean letting go of control entirely; it means drawing clear boundaries and showing trust within them.
4. Give regular, balanced feedback
An annual performance review is not enough to manage motivation. Short, frequent, concrete feedback helps the employee understand what they are doing well and what they can develop. When feedback focuses only on mistakes it creates defensiveness; when it focuses only on praise it loses credibility.
5. Chart a development path
It is clear that not every employee can be promoted; but everyone can learn something. Cross-training, skills certificates, mentoring or opportunities to gain competence on a new machine create a sense of development even in businesses where the career ladder is limited.
6. Plan workload realistically
Motivation talks cannot cover over an unresolved workload problem. Regularly review whether the planned targets are really achievable with the current staffing. The legislation places a responsibility on the employer here too: Article 5 of Occupational Health and Safety Law No. 6331 requires a coherent prevention policy covering the effects of factors related to work organisation and social relations.
7. Support your managers
The place where motivation is felt most is the relationship between the employee and their immediate supervisor. In the World Health Organization's guidelines on mental health at work, the recommendation with the strongest evidence is providing mental health training for managers (WHO, 2022). A manager who knows how to notice a struggling employee, speak constructively and show appreciation directly affects the team's motivation.
8. Strengthen relationships within the team
People often come to work not only for the job but for the people they work with. Assigning a "buddy" to new starters, turning handovers between shifts from a purely technical transfer of information into a brief moment of checking in, and celebrating team successes together nourish a sense of belonging. In environments where cliques, exclusion and gossip are widespread, even the most carefully designed reward system fails to have the expected effect.
9. Keep the door open for the struggling employee
Behind a loss of motivation there may be a personal crisis or a psychological struggle. A support channel based on the principle of confidentiality makes it easier to get help before the problem grows.
How to Get Started in Your Organisation
Work on motivation often begins with a morale event and ends there. For lasting change, it is more useful to follow a systematic path:
- Needs analysis: With an anonymous employee survey, measure areas such as workload, perceptions of fairness, appreciation, development opportunities and the relationship with the manager. Evaluate absenteeism, staff turnover and exit interview records together. If there are marked differences between units or shifts, the problem often lies in how that unit operates.
- Prioritisation: Choose two or three priority areas from the findings. Trying to fix everything at once can create the feeling that nothing is changing.
- Programme: Prepare a plan made up of manager training, team workshops, feedback and appreciation practices and, where needed, individual psychological support. Instead of a one-off seminar, prefer a structure that includes reinforcement sessions.
- Measurement: Repeat the same survey after six months and a year; track indicators such as absenteeism, staff turnover and the number of internal suggestions. Sharing the results with employees increases trust in surveys.
You can find out how this process can be set up with the support of a psychologist on our corporate services page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can employee motivation be raised by salary alone?
No. Fair pay that is enough to live on is the basic condition, and when it is missing no other practice can take its place. But pay alone does not create lasting motivation; meaning, development, autonomy and appreciation are at least as decisive.
What is the difference between motivation and engagement?
Motivation is the energy that directs a person to do a particular task, and it can change even within a day. Engagement is a person's emotional attachment to their work and organisation, acting like an owner of the work. In environments where motivation is consistently supported, engagement strengthens over time.
How should I talk to an employee whose motivation is low?
Begin with an attitude of curiosity rather than blame: ask what they have found hard recently and what has changed. Share your concrete observations; do not pass judgement. If a personal or psychological struggle emerges in the conversation, direct the person to appropriate sources of support; the manager does not need to take on the role of therapist.
Do motivation training programmes work?
The effect of one-off training based on inspirational talks is usually short-lived. Programmes that address organisational causes such as workload, fairness and manager behaviour, include reinforcement sessions and have their results measured offer a more meaningful chance of change.
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Eda Erkan Alapala
Klinik Psikolog. İstanbul Kent Üniversitesi Klinik Psikoloji Tezli Yüksek Lisans mezunu; bilişsel davranışçı terapi, çocuk merkezli oyun terapisi ve çocuk-ergen psikoterapisi alanlarında eğitimlerini tamamlamıştır.
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